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Microsoft revises, resubmits Sender ID

Microsoft has made some changes to its Sender ID proposal, which it hopes will …

Over a month after seeing its proposed Sender ID antispam protocol panned and left for dead, Microsoft has decided to revise and resubmit SenderID to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for approval. The previous incarnation of SenderID, a combination of Microsoft's "Caller ID for E-Mail" and Meng Wong's Sender Policy Framework (SPF), was shot down due to concerns about the scope of Microsoft patents as well as the licensing terms which were judged to be incompatible with open source. Sender ID was ultimately rejected by the IETF.

The changes made by Microsoft include narrowing the scope of some of the patents which could have included claims on SPF. Microsoft has defended those patents as necessary to protect the company's interests and defend it from what it describes as frivolous lawsuits. In addition, Microsoft has also made Sender ID backwards-compatible with the numerous SPF records already published. Sender ID will also give ISPs the option of using SPF or Purported Responsible Address (PRA) to verify that the e-mail originated where it claims it did.

America Online, which had joined open-source groups in rescinding its support for the first incarnation of Sender ID, has signed on to Microsoft's revised framework. AOL plans to begin testing again after pulling the plug on previous testing in September.

In the meantime, other e-mail providers (including Google) are evaluating Yahoo's Domain Keys, which uses a public/private key system to overcome the problem of spoofed headers. Yahoo says that Domain Keys will be available free of charge and with few restrictions on its use.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) had been negotiating with Microsoft over the patent and licensing issues, but those negotiations had essentially become stalemated. It remains to be seen whether the changes Microsoft has made to Sender ID will be far-reaching enough to gain the support of IETF, not to mention the various open source groups which had opposed its previous incarnation.

Eric Bangeman
Eric has been using personal computers since 1980 and writing about them at Ars Technica since 2003, where he currently serves as Managing Editor. Twitter@ericbangeman